German biathletes third in relay - Kühn penalized
Even without the slightly injured Roman Rees and Justus Strelow, the German biathletes finished third in the first relay race of the season to secure another podium finish.
David Zobel, Philipp Nawrath, Benedikt Doll and Johannes Kühn had one penalty loop and 16 reloads in Östersund, Sweden. Favorite Norway secured victory ahead of France. The German quartet finished 50.5 seconds behind the Scandinavians after 4 x 7.5 kilometers.
It was the sixth podium finish for the German team in the sixth race at the first stop of the season - the last time they did so well was eight years ago at the start of the 2015/2016 season. The men were even in second place for a long time, although Kühn had to go into the penalty loop once after the last shooting.
Overall World Cup leader Rees and individual runner-up Strelow had to withdraw at short notice due to infection symptoms. After being nominated the day before, a relay team was out of the question "so as not to jeopardize the following competitions", as team doctor Jan Wüstenfeld said. The next race for the men is the sprint on Saturday. In this competition, Rees would compete in the yellow jersey for the first time in his career if he is fit again in time.
Source: www.dpa.com
